Movement to ban same-sex couples from adopting: sacrificing the well-being of children

"When child protective services took two young children from their
home and brought them to Frank Martin Gill and his partner in December
2004, the investigator told the men, experienced foster parents, that
the boys deserved a good holiday. The men were planning to move soon
but agreed to take them temporarily.

"It was clear the boys, ages four years and four months, needed care.
The elder boy was wearing a dirty adult-sized t-shirt and sneakers four
sizes too small. He did not speak, and his only concern was caring for
his infant brother. Both boys had scalp ringworm and the younger had an
ear infection, but the medicines brought from their home had been
unused. When the older boy began to speak after about a month, the men
learned he had never seen a book, could not count, and did not even
know letters from numbers.

"The brothers stayed and the men did not move. The boys developed
friendships at school and in the neighborhood. They bonded with the
biological son of Gill’s partner and with the men’s parents and
siblings. They began referring to Gill and his partner (who is not
identified in court documents) as “Papi” and “Daddy.” In 2007, after
the rights of the biological parents were terminated, Gill petitioned
to adopt.

"The men, however, live in the state of Florida—the one state that bans any
gay men or lesbians from adopting. And that has created a dilemma for
the courts: either they honor the law or honor their duty to rule in
the best interests of the children.

"Despite a positive home study, the Florida Department of Children
and Families denied Gill’s adoption application. With the help of the
ACLU of Florida, Gill sued the state. (The men felt they would stand no
chance if they sued for a joint adoption.) During the trial, the court
heard expert testimony from a psychologist who had assessed the boys
and determined they would be 'emotionally devastated' if taken from
their current home.

"In November 2008, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that
the adoption ban violated Gill and the children’s right to equal
protection under the state Constitution. The government, she said,
failed to demonstrate a rational reason for imposing the ban, and the
law obstructed the right of children to a permanent, stable home as
provided by federal and state law.

"The state Department of Children and Families (DCF) appealed the
ruling to the state’s Third District Court of Appeals, which heard
arguments in August 2009. The decision has now been pending for a year.

... "Beyond Florida, some LGBT experts and advocates think that adoption
could be the next major target—after marriage equality—for opponents of
LGBT civil rights. In the federal trial this year challenging the
constitutionality of Proposition 8, California’s ban on the freedom to marry, a witness for the plaintiffs, Dr. Gary Segura predicted that,
as fewer states are able to use the initiative process to contest marriage equality, 'the new front line would be gay and lesbian
adoption.'

“'I would not be surprised to see anti-adoption initiatives appearing
in the near future,' said Segura, professor of political science at
Stanford University.

"Equality Florida’s Smith agreed, saying, 'The entire country has a
stake in ending [the Florida] adoption ban so that the far-right
doesn’t begin trying to export it and expand it elsewhere through the
same mechanisms that they pushed the marriage ban. . . . The far-right
nationally is geared up to defend and expand this ban and we’ve got to
be geared up nationally to defeat it.'

"There are signs of this already. The Arizona House approved a bill
at the end of February that would give preference to married couples
when placing children with adoptive parents. It is now in the State
Senate.

"And voters in Arkansas approved that state’s ban on allowing
adoptions by unmarried couples in November 2008. In April, a state
circuit judge struck down the ban for that circuit, but the state is
expected to appeal."